Audio Cassettes Of Books Having Impact On Market

August 30, 1987|New York Times News Service

Audio cassettes based on books are having an increasing impact on the entertainment and educational marketplace all over the country.

After being a comparatively stable and rather esoteric enterprise on long- playing records for the past 35 years, the spoken word is gaining increasing popularity on cassettes and discs. Hundreds of small and large companies are spinning out audio cassettes on every conceivable subject -- from self-help to Shakespeare. Every category of book on and off the best- seller lists, in fiction and non-fiction, now can be heard if not seen.

According to Publishers Weekly, which now reports regularly on audio cassettes, in 1985 the average bookstore carried about 85 titles; in 1987, that number has risen to about 120 titles -- a growth of about 50 percent in two years. The business has increased by tens of millions of dollars annually, to reach what industry sources say is now $200 million in the United States.

A number of bookstores have set aside special sections for audio books, and audio books are being distributed by major book wholesalers. Commercial as well as literary books are turning up on cassettes for listeners to hear -- in cars, at home and in the street or subway, through earphones. Audio cassettes have one advantage over video cassettes: portability.

Some of the major book publishers have formed or acquired their own audio- cassette companies. And publishers are going through their frontlists, midlists and backlists to see what can be sold or transferred to cassette.

Although Daniel J. Travanti no longer can be seen in fresh episodes as the police captain on the late Hill Street Blues, he will at least be heard in another nostalgic role -- playing the William Powell part in Dashiell Hammett`s Thin Man. It will come out in January from Caedmon, unabridged, on a two-cassette version for $14.95. Travanti and other performers, novelists, poets and non-fiction writers have found audio cassettes a new outlet for their talents and a source of income.

Presumed Innocent, the Scott Turow novel published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux that has been running No. 1 or 2 on national best-seller lists all summer, is an example of the booming market in audio books. Gail Hochman of the Brandt & Brandt literary agency, which represents Turow, retained the cassette and film rights separately for the author. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, who published the hard-cover edition, shares in the considerable paperback, book club and second serial publication rights.

The two-cassette audio book of Presumed Innocent will run about 180 minutes -- 45 minutes on each side of the two cassettes. The $14.95 price is about half the cost of many video cassettes. Lynn Wood, the production manager at Simon & Schuster Audio, said the video cassette would come out in January.